Better Off Undead

by Cynthia Eden

  “In the back,” Vincent said, “last room on the right.”

  “Jane!” Annette called. “Jane, I want to help you!”

  But…when she rushed into that last room on the right, Jane wasn’t there. Bloody manacles were on the floor, but Jane was gone. Annette staggered to a stop. The vampire thudded into her back.

  “Go find her,” Annette whispered. “Hurry. Find her.” Before Aidan does.

  ***

  Jane’s bare feet pounded over the pavement. That powerful blood was in the air, calling to her. A heavy, stone fence waited just feet away—Jane ran forward and leapt right over the fence. When she landed, she crouched and looked around the cemetery. Her nostrils twitched.

  To the left. Go. Left. Jane bounded forward, darting around crypts and then—then she came face to face with her prey.

  Paris held Vivian in his arms. Vivian was bleeding. So much blood. So much sweet blood.

  Jane’s teeth snapped together.

  “Oh, hell, no,” Garrison muttered from behind Paris. “Tell me she’s not all vamped up.”

  Jane wanted to talk to them. To tell them all to run but…

  There’s so much blood. And it smells incredible.

  She crept toward her prey. Paris had gone statue-still. “Jane,” he said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I don’t think you can.

  Her hand reached for Vivian. She licked her lips.

  “Jane…” Vivian’s weak voice. “Jane…h-help me…”

  She doesn’t know what I am.

  Vivian thought Jane was still just her friend.

  I’m about to feed on my friend. No, no, no.

  “Get…her away…” Jane rasped, then she turned and fled even deeper into the heart of that cemetery. This is the city of the dead. This is where I belong. I can’t attack. I can’t drink. I should be dead.

  Dead.

  She ran faster, aware that she was crying, her chest shuddering. She pounded on her chest, wanting to stop the terrible pain that she felt, wanting it all to end. As she should have ended when her brother shot her.

  She darted around another crypt.

  Howls penetrated the chaos of her thoughts. Terrible, frenzied howls.

  Jane saw two beasts. One was a big, black wolf…with blue eyes that were forever burned into her memory.

  The other beast…it was smaller, a white wolf with pale green eyes. As she stared at it, the white wolf slowly turned toward her. It sniffed the air, as if confused, and then its eyes lit with a killing fury.

  Aidan always said…a werewolf has a primal instinct to kill a vampire.

  That wolf coming toward her…it was going to kill her.

  He’s the other alpha. She was having moments of sanity—desperate moments pushing through that wild, driving bloodlust that twisted her mind. The other alpha will kill me…that way, Aidan doesn’t have to do the dark deed. He won’t have my death on his conscience. He won’t carry that guilt forever.

  She stretched her hands out at her sides. The white wolf was bounding toward her. Its heavy jaws were hanging open, and saliva dripped from his razor sharp teeth. This was the beast she’d been hunting. This was the beast who would kill her.

  She could welcome her end. Her death would stop Aidan’s pain. It would stop her own pain.

  Jane started to close her eyes.

  But…

  Screw this. I’m not ready. The wolf leapt for her and Jane caught him around the neck. Her strength surprised her. She held that wolf easily. She lifted him up—

  And Jane drove her fangs past his fur and into his neck. The wolf let out a terrible cry—a scream of pain, a howl of fury—and he thrashed in her hold, but Jane held him fast. And she drank.

  His blood is hot and rich. I like it.

  And she wasn’t vomiting it up. His blood was flowing over her tongue and she just wanted to keep taking. Taking and taking and taking until nothing is left.

  Jane shoved the wolf away from her, throwing him into the stone wall of a nearby crypt. “But I’m…not…a…killer.” Her breath heaved out. Each word was a struggle but she did it. She spoke. She fought the bloodlust. She won. “You’re…under…arrest…”

  The white wolf leapt back to his feet. He shook his head. His blood had darkened his white coat. He pushed back onto his hind legs and hurtled into the air, coming right at her.

  Because obviously, you want some more, huh, bastard?

  But Aidan collided with him. The two wolves hit in a tangle of limbs. They rolled, clawing and biting and fighting with a savagery that she’d never witnessed before. They were strong. They were powerful. They were—

  Aidan sank his teeth into the other wolf’s throat, right in the same spot she’d attacked. Only Aidan hadn’t gone for some little bite.

  Jane sucked in a sharp breath as she stared at the scene before her.

  Aidan ripped out the other wolf’s throat.

  The heavy, coppery scent of blood flooded her nose again. And this time…I can smell death. It’s coming. Jane watched as the black wolf backed away from his prey. The white wolf slowly shifted, his fur melting away from his body. Soon a man was on the ground where the wolf had been. A man struggling to take a breath. Wheezing on the ground.

  I was like that. So desperate to live.

  Jane took a step toward him.

  The black wolf spun to confront her, snarling.

  Jane lifted her hands. “Easy.”

  The black wolf stalked toward her—no, Aidan stalked toward her. Jane didn’t retreat. She locked her knees and stood before him.

  Behind him, Quint Laurel wasn’t struggling to breathe any longer. He was sprawled on the ground, his body spread before a crypt, slashed and broken, just as he’d left his victims.

  “Jane, get away from him!”

  Her head jerked to the right. She saw Vincent running toward her. Annette was right behind him. Jane blinked. How had those two gotten together? “I kept the blood down,” she whispered. She should be revolted. She was but…

  But I’m in control now. I can think semi-clearly. And I don’t want to hurt Aidan.

  So she didn’t run…running would have just made his hunting instincts even stronger. If she ran, he’d attack. He was moving toward her so slowly. His head was low to the ground, his body tense.

  “Aidan.” Jane said his name with longing. “Aidan, I’m so sorry.”

  He stilled.

  “I didn’t want it to be this way. I wanted to stay with you, always.” She couldn’t look away from his eyes. A man’s eyes in the face of a beast. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Do you want to hurt me? Are you thinking about ripping out my throat, just as you did to Quint Laurel?

  “Jane.” Annette called her name sharply. “Jane, are you in control?”

  She nodded.

  “How is she in control?” Annette demanded. “Vincent, what is happening?”

  “She fed.” He’d stopped a few feet away. Aidan’s head swung between Jane and Vincent. “But you didn’t kill, did you, Jane?” Vincent sounded proud. “You pulled back. You didn’t let the darkness out.”

  She felt full of darkness right then. Darkness and pain and…power. It pulsed just beneath her skin.

  “Her eyes glow like a wolf’s,” Annette said. “How is that possible?”

  A low growl shook Aidan’s body. His focus was now completely on Vincent. Uh, oh. “He’s going to kill you,” Jane said softly. “You need to take Annette and you need to get out of here.”

  “I won’t leave you,” Vincent yelled back. “I can take you both away from here. He won’t hurt you—”

  “I don’t want to leave him.” That truth went straight to her soul. “I always just wanted…to be with Aidan.” And she would be with him, until the end. “I’m sorry,” she said to Aidan once more. They both knew how this story would end.

  Monsters didn’t get happy endings, no matter what they wanted to pretend. It just wasn’t in the cards for them. “Go,” J
ane said to Vincent and Annette. The mark on her side—that stupid burn she’d carried for so long—seemed to ache.

  Vincent looped his arms around Annette. They vanished. And Aidan…he turned his glowing eyes back on Jane. She sagged to her knees. A tired smile curved her lips. Aidan crept closer to her. She lifted her arms. “Can I see you as a man? Just once more?”

  The wolf stilled.

  “While I enjoy your beast,” Jane murmured, “it’s the man I love. I want to see him again. Can I see him again? Please? Just once more?”

  And…the wolf lowered its head. The beast’s body shuddered. He gave a pain-filled, desperate cry, one that chilled her already cold skin. The fur slid away from him, seemed to melt. Strong, muscled flesh appeared. Claws vanished and Aidan’s hands were pressed to the ground. She saw his wonderful, thick hair. And when he tilted back his head to look at her…a trembling smile curved Jane’s lips. “Hello, Aidan.”

  He rose, not speaking.

  Probably because he was trying not to kill her and battling his primal instincts took all of his energy.

  “I have control right now,” Jane said. “I-I don’t know how long it will last, but…but I feel in control. Do you?”

  He still didn’t speak, but he did take a step toward her.

  “I remember trying to breathe at Tulane. Gasping. Vincent…” She remembered his hand on her throat. Jane swallowed. “One minute, I was on that campus, then suddenly, I was in that alley outside of the ME’s building. Smoke was all around. You were there. I-I bit you, and I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” He was back in the body of a man, but his voice was definitely still beast-like.

  He reached out to her. Jane didn’t flinch. She didn’t try to run. She just…knelt there. Waiting. She’d had a choice to make.

  Now he had to make a choice, too. Kill me. Or love me.

  “You…still smell like you’re mine,” Aidan rasped.

  She wouldn’t cry. “And you still look like you’re mine. My werewolf. My Aidan.” She rose to her feet and stood on her toes. When he didn’t attack, Jane pressed her lips to his. “I wish we’d had forever.”

  “I do, too.” He pulled her against him and held her tight.

  She heard the rustle of footsteps behind her. Too late.

  Aidan…he was distracting me. He was—

  “I’m sorry, my Jane.”

  She tried to yank out of his arms, but he held her too tightly. She caught a fast glimpse of Paris. He had something in his hand. Something—

  He injected her.

  “Told you that would come in handy,” Paris muttered.

  Jane’s veins began to feel cold. Her knees buckled, but Aidan scooped her into his arms.

  “I love you, Jane,” Aidan said. And it was the man talking, not the beast.

  The man killed me?

  Her lashes slipped closed. At least there was no pain this time. If she was dying again…

  At least there is no pain.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jane looked so helpless.

  Aidan swallowed the thick lump in his throat as he stared at her. She was strapped down to an exam table, heavily sedated—sedated enough to knock out a damn elephant. Or an alpha werewolf. The vial Paris had taken from Annette had certainly come in handy.

  After they’d drugged Jane, he’d brought her back to his home, the estate deep in the swamp. Aidan had only kept his most trusted wolves with him…and a few other needed individuals.

  Dr. Bob Heider was currently curled over his microscope.

  Annette was staring into her scrying mirror.

  Paris was staring at Annette.

  And the bastard vampire Vincent…well…Garrison had a gun pointed dead-center at the vamp’s heart. A gun that was loaded with wooden bullets.

  “The gun isn’t necessary,” Vincent stated for what had to be the twentieth time. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. As I told you from the beginning, I want to help Jane.”

  Something inside of Aidan just broke at the guy’s words. He flew toward him, caught the vamp’s neck in his hands and snarled, “The way you helped her when you broke her neck?”

  Vincent blanched. “She was already dying. Did you want me to prolong her suffering? You couldn’t get to her, you were barely breathing yourself! And your blood kept…changing her. I was afraid of what she’d become if she took more. I didn’t want her in agony, I didn’t want—”

  Snap.

  It was too easy to break Vincent’s neck.

  Aidan released a long, hard breath.

  “Did that make you feel better?” Paris asked him, voice curious.

  He considered it. “A little bit.” Aidan motioned to Garrison. “He’ll wake up again in a few minutes. That broken neck will heal all too soon, so keep the gun on him.”

  Garrison nodded. His hold was tight on the weapon. A little too tight. “Don’t get trigger happy on me yet,” Aidan warned him. “The vamp came to us willingly. And he’s provided us with a lot of information about Jane.”

  Like the fact that Jane hadn’t been able to keep down bagged blood or human blood that had come straight from the source. She’d only been able to take werewolf blood.

  And…according to Vincent…the fact that Jane hadn’t killed when she’d taken that blood meant her humanity remained. At least some of it. Jane wasn’t a killing machine.

  Neither am I.

  Because while the beast had raged, while the wolf had snapped and snarled, it hadn’t gone for Jane’s throat. Even my beast didn’t want to kill her. The wolf had gone against its natural instincts because Jane…

  She still smelled like she was mine. I looked at her and thought…Mine.

  Was that how it had been for his father? Was that why he hadn’t been able to stop Aidan’s mother?

  Am I just fucking fooling myself? Prolonging all of our pain? He raked his hand through his hair. “Fuck me. What the hell does ‘the end’ even mean?” Aidan demanded. “Why was it branded on her?”

  Garrison pointed toward Vincent’s slumped form. “That’s probably something you should’ve asked him.”

  “Yes, well, I will.” He paced back to Jane’s side. Her cheeks had a little color in them. Her hair had been washed, her body washed—all of the blood cleaned away. I did that. I knew she’d want to be clean. He’d dressed her, too. Carefully. Tenderly. Because she was still his Jane.

  She always would be.

  “Her blood has mutated,” Bob said as he straightened away from the microscope Aidan had brought in for the doctor to use. “But it’s…it’s not like other vamp blood that I’ve seen.”

  Aidan curled his fingers around Jane’s hand. “What does that mean?”

  “It means…shit, it means her cells actually look like—like yours.”

  Aidan kept his hold on Jane, but his gaze zeroed in on the ME. “Explain.”

  “It’s like a weird mix. Half vamp, half werewolf. I’m seeing traits of both when I examine her cells. It makes no sense to me. I mean, she has to be one or the other right?” Dr. Bob yanked off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am so working above my pay grade here.”

  Annette gave a low gasp, and the mirror she’d been holding slipped from her fingers. It hit the floor and splintered, heavy, dark chunks flying in every direction. “You did this.”

  Aidan blinked.

  Vincent moaned. “Fucking bastard…”

  Annette hurried toward Aidan, carefully stepping around the chunks of broken glass. She pointed at him. “You changed Jane.”

  “No, that would be the jerk-off vampire—”

  “He was right,” Annette cut in, shaking her head. Her finger jabbed into his chest. “You had given Jane your blood. But Jane wasn’t a werewolf when you did that, and she wasn’t human, either. I saw…in the mirror…you changed her.”

  Aidan’s muscled tensed.

  “Ripped sheets,” Annette whispered. “In my mirror, I saw Jane’s hands become claws as she gripped the s
heets and gave herself to you.”

  Aidan felt heat sting his cheeks. “That would be damn personal, Annette. Do you always see people having sex in that mirror?”

  “Jane was already different then. A wolf had started to rise within her. You suspected…that was why you came to me.”

  Aidan glanced back at Jane. “She’d been injured so badly. I was just happy to have her with me. She…she seemed a little different.” He winced at that. “Her senses were sharper. She was stronger, but I…I thought it was just temporary.”

  “You can’t fuck with nature,” Vincent snarled. The vamp was back in fighting form. The broken neck hadn’t slowed him down nearly long enough. “When you do…bad things happen. Why do you think most vamps are so screwed up? They aren’t supposed to be made. Humans can’t handle the transformation. They go wild with the feelings and the needs exploding in them. Vamps are supposed to be born. Like me. Like Jane. Born and then guided so that we can keep our control. I’m Jane’s guide. I’m here to help her.”

  A born vampire had a guide? “Where the hell was my mother’s guide?” The question ripped out of him, the bitterness and pain never far from the surface. “When she was killing my family, where was her guide, huh? Where?”

  Sadness flashed on Vincent’s face. “I don’t know. There…there aren’t many born left. Until Jane, I was worried there wouldn’t be more. Vampires aren’t all evil, despite what you think. I’ve tried hard all these years to fight my own darkness. To help others. That’s why I’m here now. I will do anything to see that Jane makes it through this change.”

  “That’s why we’re all here,” Aidan muttered, his fingers still holding tight to Jane. “To make sure…” He cleared his throat and focused on Bob Heider. “I knew when I pulled you out of that fire that you’d come in handy.”

  Bob’s eyes narrowed as he slipped his glasses back into place. “Are you saying you didn’t just save me because it was the right thing to do?”

  Aidan stared back at him.

  “Liar…” It was a soft whisper, so faint that, even with Aidan’s enhanced hearing, he almost missed it. But—

  His gaze whipped down to Jane.

  Her lips moved again, the smallest of motions.